How Can I keep From Singing?

Where Martin Luther stood and defended his reformation of the

 Catholic Church

This week was intense.
It was the final few days of getting everything ready before the
Musikalische Abend, one last trip to the doctors for"Michelle", lost
our baptism date, and transfer calls! Quite the busy week of "hurry up
and wait".

And then I caught a cold.
That wa"snot" what I was expecting, nor was it what I was trying catch.
You see, I was singing two pieces in this fireside, and I needed my voice!
After drinking about 100000000 gallons of fresh ginger tea, lots of
prayers, scarfs, staying inside, and vitamin C, the day of the
Musikalische Abend arrived.

It was like Christmas morning.

But first, transfer calls.....

Everybody's leaving but me.

I am the one and only missionary currently in Mannheim that will be
staying in Mannheim.
But, I'll be joined by the fabulous Sister Helmick, who was in my MTC
group, and Elder Ninow and Elder Fultz, who, rumor has it, are pretty
great as well.

Sister Megli is going to Kaiserslautern English (AMERICA) speaking for
her last two transfers.
Elders Ostler and Beverlin are getting transferred to actual America.

Also, Saturday we spent the entire day carrying random things around Mannheim and across Käfertal.
Like a scale.
Or a living room lamp.
Or 4-5 dozen cookies.

The things one does as a missionary. :)

A couple miracles from the week, though.

We were sitting in a Bahn, and we saw this really nice looking lady
get on. We sit in one set of four seats, and she sits in the set
across from us. Sister Megli and I are sitting kitty corner in our set
of four.
My goal is to invite her to the Musikalische Abend. At first, we don't
say anything, we just look at each other and smile really big.
Sweetly awkward...
Finally, I lean across the isle, and strike up a conversation.

At the next stop, an older lady gets on, and quasi joins the conversation.
Then, all of a sudden, this young guy gets on the Bahn and sits down
right next to S. Megli, and across from me. He has large gauges, two
lip rings, and hair down to his shoulders with one side of his head
shaved short (thank you Hunger Games for inspiring a whole new kind of
hair-do in Europe...). He was dressed all in black, and kindly sharing
his music (that he was listening to with head phones) with the entire
Bahn.
Not mission appropriate music, in case you were wondering.
I just kinda stop talking, because I was a little awed by this guy.
And then, I noticed his eyes.
They were kind, young, and alive with healthy intelligence.
I was intrigued.
I eventually continued my conversation with the lady across the way,
and gave her an invite. She gets off, and the I offer an invite to the
older lady. She also gets off.
Now it's just us and the guy. I had this internal debate in my head as
to whether or not I should offer him an invite. I felt like the music
he was listening to was a good indication as to whether or not he's
enjoy our music choices.
But I knew that I would regret not offering him one, so I did.
He was expecting it, and gave one defined nod, and took it, folded it
once, and put it in his coat. Sister Megli and I were shocked and
nearly fell off our chairs.
He didn't end up coming, but someone else really cool did.

We found out that a guy was given an invite in the city (either from
us sisters or a member who works in the city) and gave it to his
friend who turns out is Mormon, and they both walk an hour and a half
to get to the church.
Folks!
An hour and a half!!!!
WALKING

The musical night was SO COOL! We had some great people show up, and
they seemed to really enjoy it. It was also well attended by the
members, and it was just so much fun!
I was so stressed, because people didn't show up when I thought they
would, and weird little things happened, but then it just all went
smoothly.
Everyone did a beautiful job, and everybody was so great, and nice,
and people actually came!!
My favorite comment was a non-member said that it was like the musical
Jesus Christ superstar. The music Saturday was a lot more appropriate
though haha.

I was just so excited.

The Lord is so good!

This email is already super long, so I just want to say again that
it's worth it.

The gospel is true and it is worth it.


All my love!

Sister Roderer